THE SOUTH CHURCH. 1 1 



12, 1825. The failure of his liealth occasioned his di.sinission, 

 Dec. 19, 1827. He died in Bridgeport, Nov. 9, 1878, aged 77 

 years. 



Rev. Jonathan Cogswell was installed pastor April 29, 

 1829, and was dismissed April 29, 1834, having been appointed 

 Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the Theological Institute 

 at East Windsor, Conn. He died in New Brunswick, N. J., 

 Aug. 1, 1864, aged 81 years. 



Rev. DwiGHT M. Seward, the fifth pastor, was ordained 

 Feb. 3, 1836. He was dismissed June 15, 1842, and was after- 

 wards pastor of a church in Middlefield from 1842 to 1845; in 

 West Hartford from 1845 to 1850; in Yonkers, N. Y., from 

 1852 to 1870; in New Providence, N. J., 1880, and in Port- 

 land, Me., from 1881 to 1884. During the interim of his settled 

 pastorates he supplied the pulpit at West Hoboken, N. J., 

 Schroon Lake and Moriah, N. Y., and other places, and has re- 

 sided at South Norwalk since 1884. 



When the New Britain Ecclesiastical Society was incorpo- 

 rated, there were from forty to fifty houses within its limits. 

 These were chiefly in Stanley Quarter, East Street, and Hart 

 Quarter, and the only public building was a small schoolhouse 

 on East Street. For a few years after the society was organ- 

 ized, the Sunday services and other public meetings were held 

 in this schoolhouse, or in dwelling-houses or barns on East 

 Street. The first meeting-house was located by thQ county court, 

 and was placed near a ledge of rocks, in a grove a half-mile 

 northeast of the city square. It was a plain building, without 

 steeple or bell, but became the place where preaching services 

 and nearly all public meetings were held from 1756 until 1822, 

 when a second and more convenient house of worship was 

 erected at the corner of Main and East Main Streets. This lat- 

 ter house was the place of meeting at the time of the division of 

 the Church. 



The expediency of organizing another Congregational 

 church had been considered for some time, when a communica- 

 tion having this object in view was presented to a meeting of 

 the Church, June 14, 1842. The causes which led to this step 



